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The Nice Metropolis Eco Valley:
Development Plans

Having been a peri-urban area with untapped potential for
a long time, the west of Nice has changed its look over the
past decade and will continue its transformation over the
next ten years.

The Eco-Valley is an Operation of National Interest: this was decided
during the Grenelle de l’Environnement in 2009. The project covers
10,000 hectares in the Plaine du Var and incorporates 15 municipalities,
including the City of Nice. At the heart of this area lies the Nice
Méridia urban technology park. The new urban area currently under
construction was designed by a multidisciplinary team led by the
urban architect Christian Devillers and the sociologist Alain Bourdin
to provide an alternative model of development and town planning.
The high environmental performance buildings have been designed for
mixed use, with housing for the working population, an intergenerational
centre, shops, training and R&D centres. This area is already
accommodates companies such as IBM, as well as start-ups (Vulog,
© Sou Fujimoto Eridanis, MyCoach) that are ambassadors of French Tech. A new

teaching and research centre dedicated to sustainable development
and ecology reinforces the attractiveness of this area, which also
offers an entire network of incubators, business incubators and
The centre of Nice is in step with the modern world while it preserves accelerators. The symbol of this renewal is certainly the UEFA-standard
its history
eco-stadium, the Allianz Riviera in Saint Isidore, inaugurated in 2013
Since July 27, the city of Nice has been included on the Unesco World that can hold 45,000 spectators.
Heritage List as a “Riviera winter resort town” for its architectural, The Nice Valley shopping centre surrounds the stadium and is, most
landscape and urban heritage. The Thiers station district is within the importantly, the land on which a new Ikea is being built. Line 3 of the
listed area and it is in the process of becoming a new multimodal hub Nice tramway, which links this booming district to the centre of Nice
in the heart of Nice. Nearby, a modern new “iconic” building (shops, via the Saint Augustin district ensures easy transportation to open
Hilton Garden Inn hotel with 120 rooms, theatre that seats 600, offices up the new sector.
and services) designed by Daniel Libeskind, author of the “Master In this 90,000 m area of the new business district the Grand Arénas,
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Plan” of Ground Zero in Manhattan, will give new llife to the area. As the Nice Saint-Augustin multimodal hub with a direct connection to the
the cradle of Nice’s history, with its landscape opening onto the Baie Nice Côte d’Azur airport, will eventually house a train station (trains
des Anges, the castle hill is in the process of being redeveloped. This and TGV to Paris, Marseille and Italy), a bus station (urban and intercity
natural site classified as a “natural monument” aims to recapture the buses), a direct link to downtown Nice by tram, bicycle stations (Blue
spirit of 19 century promenades. bike) and electric cars (Blue Auto), as well as park and ride facilities.
th
A 65,000 m international exhibition and convention centre will also
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be built in the heart of the business district; delivery is scheduled for
2024 at an estimated cost of 200 million euros. With the capacity to
accommodate 35,000 people this multipurpose structure, the design
of which has been entrusted to the Catalan architect-urban planner
Josep Lluís Mateo, will be able to host all types of events (trade fairs
and exhibitions, large international congresses, trade shows etc).
Currently being developed, the Nice Eco-Valley Park will be the city’s
second green belt. Crossed by the cycle paths that crisscross the
entire Eco-Vallley, this landscaped park will extend over 2 kilometres
in length with a surface area of 25 hectares, from the terminus of
lines 2 and 3 of the tram to the Allianz Riviera Stadium.
Further north, 20 kilometres from Nice, the future eco-district of
La Digue in Saint-Martin-du-Var is currently under construction. A
multimodal hub incorporating different types of transport will link
this town in the middle of the Nice region along the RD 6202 to the
Iconic Gare Thiers centre of Nice.

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